Creatures from the Pink Lagoon

Reel Affirmations 2006

CREATURES FROM THE Pink Lagoon is proof that, eventually, everything that can happen, will happen. How else to explain this mash-up of the zombie horror classic Night of the Living Dead with the horrific gay classic The Boys in the Band?

So, let’s take a quick bite of the plot. As a group of ’50s-era friends gather at a lakeshore house to celebrate Phillip’s birthday, flesh-eating zombies are making their (slow) way to crash the party. But not just any zombies — they’re gay zombies. It seems the chemical plant and mosquito-infested swamp responsible for the zombification are right next to a very, very popular rest stop, where Phillip’s boyfriend is a regular.

The comedy of Creatures is, naturally, broad. While the gay zombies are at the forefront, the movie actually gets better laughs from tweaking its gay source material. All the different gay stereotypes are on hand, including the Paul Lynde-esque Randall, who meets every moment with a smoke-exhaling putdown. When a panicked neighbor arrives wearing a mosquito-proof ensemble, he deadpans, ”Who’s the old fruit in the space suit?” Later, when confronted with a show-tune driven zombie musical number, he wearily declares, ”So they can do our hair before they eat our brains.”

Aside from Randall, most of the acting is on the weak side — when two of the guys go for an illicit, romantic frolic in the lake, I couldn’t help but think I’d seen more enthusiastic waterplay in cheap European porn — but everyone stays game throughout, resulting in an experience that’s funnier than you might expect. — SB